The former half of Vinay Govind’s ‘Kohinoor’ moves ahead at a snail’s pace, so much so that by the time a bit of energy is infused in the latter half, things get dampened beyond recovery. The uneventful initial hour of the film, thus cooks up enough and more downbeat air that almost explicitly states as to where the film is headed.

Set in 1988, ‘Kohinoor’ has Louis (Asif Ali) and Aandikunju (Aju Varghese) being drawn into a heist plan – one that is led by Haider (Indrajith) and aided by Freddy (Vinay Fort) and Nicholas (Vinod Jose). The group plans to loot Kohinoor Textiles, owned by Xavier and Mamman (Riza Bava and Sudheer Karamana), and lays out a design that goes kaput on their first attempt.

The film does throw a few surprises at you, a few minutes into the latter half, and then decides to shock you further, and further, and further. Yeah, it does rain twists and turns in ‘Kohinoor’, but by the time the final frame is reached, all these bolts from the blue are likely to leave the viewer exasperated.

After a false start that lasts pretty long, ‘Kohinoor’ does not end up the entertainer that it so badly wants to be, despite the abundant bombshells that it has in store, towards the end of the film. Had they been spread out evenly across the two hours plus running time of the film, writers Salil Menon and Ranjeet Kamala Shankar could have come up with a tremendously engaging film.

As much as I wonder if CCTV surveillance cameras had become the in-thing in textile shops in the late 80’s, the film does succeed in maintaining an eighties air to it. Except for the odd instances when a character or two would mouth a heavily accented line in English, or when one comes across a recent popular usage in Malayalam in the dialogue, it looks and sounds pretty much the golden eighties.

The film thus shows signs of swerving upwards during the scenes of textile heist, before and after which the graph tends to droop downwards. But it should be handed over to the makers that the few minutes inside the Kohinoor textiles, where a hold-up is in progress are remarkably appealing and wins the audience hands down.

‘Kohinoor’ does indulge in its occasional share of nostalgia as well, with the protagonist himself aspiring to be a spruce crook on the lines of Sagar Alias Jackey or Tharadas. There is also the incessant stream of music playing on in the background, reasserting that we have gone back a good twenty years or more.

I liked Indrajith best among the lead actors in ‘Kohinoor’, with a dashing Asif Ali sporting a dapper moustache, finishing a close second. There are other actors as Aju Varghese, Vinod Jose and Vinay Fort delivering commendable performances as well.

The finest moments in ‘Kohinoor’ are the few minutes when the song ‘Hemanthamen..’ comes up on screen, that highly hummable number composed by the incredibly talented Rahul Raj. Pradeesh Verma’s frames are stunning as well.

A somewhat clever concept and a distinctly stylish execution do not salvage the film and ‘Kohinoor’, is a classic case of too many twists all together, spoiling the plot. With a more prudent placing of these exposes, they could have stirred up a toofaan indeed!